Initiation party in Lachine for new lifeguards leads to pool closures, COVID testing

A lifeguard who attended Sunday's party has since tested positive for COVID-19, and other party-goers are now being tested.

Montreal's Lachine borough closed several public pools because dozens of lifeguards went to an initiation party for new lifeguards Sunday, and one later tested positive for COVID-19, CBC News has learned.

The party started at a park on 55th Avenue and Lakeshore Boulevard in Lachine Sunday night, according to screenshots from a Facebook group for lifeguards.

“Be there at 9:30. At 10, we start. No mercy for the fashionably late,” one of the posts read..

CBC spoke to a city employee familiar with the situation, who confirmed the party took place.

The party moved to a private home after a noise complaint, according to the Facebook screenshots.

Montreal police confirmed to CBC that they responded to a noise complaint in the area that evening.

The next day — Monday — one of the lifeguards who had attended the party found out that someone she had seen the previous week had tested positive for COVID-19.

That lifeguard got tested and found out that she, too, was infected. She informed her colleagues and advised them to get tested, as well.

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Lifeguards who were at the party have been getting tested, but it is not yet known if any of them has contracted the virus.

As a result of those events, three pools in Lachine will be closed until further notice. Officials say they are being disinfected.

Two pools in Verdun are also closed, as are pools in Kirkland and LaSalle.

When asked for comment, the City of Montreal sent the same statement it released Wednesday, when the pools were closed.

The statement makes no mention of the party, other than to say that behaviour outside work is a matter of individual responsibility.

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